The Cañon City Council on Monday approved by majority vote the 2014 budget, which is built to reflect a potential 20 percent reduction on income from the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park.

City Administrator Doug Dotson said the city has seen slight increases in sales tax revenue in recent years, but after factoring in inflation, the city is not sustaining the revenue, the city's main source of operations.

"We're not expecting significant revenue increases into next year," Dotson said. "I think that we're expecting revenues in 2014 will be flat — or consistent with the numbers we saw in 2013 — or in some cases, we might see a few slight reductions."

Dotson said the city needs to do something fairly significant to grow long-term revenue streams.

"We have begun to make changes in the budget so that we can begin to free up money that we can put into economic development activities so that we can start taking the steps to grow our revenue source, particularly our sales tax," he said. "There are going to be some significant changes, in some cases we know they are not the most comfortable decisions to make, they are decisions that are going to have to be made, and we we will be announcing those changes sometime in early December, all of those changes are built into the budget."

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Councilman Roger Parsons moved to table budget consideration until the special council meeting at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday so line items can be discussed more at a committee level. The motion was denied by majority vote, with all council members present voting no except Parsons. Dotson said expenditures are considered by council members as presented throughout the year, but Parsons said he will not be on council in 2014 when items are presented for review. His term expires in December.

In other business, Todd Denius, owner of Royal View Campground on U.S. 50 near the Royal Gorge and member of the Colorado Campground and Lodging Owners Association, said CCLOA is interested in helping advertise the Royal Gorge Region nationally at no cost to the city. He said he also is meeting Wednesday with a Colorado Springs visitors bureau who is interested in helping to promote the area.

Dotson confirmed that the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park could possible open in March for drive-through traffic while the buildings are being constructed.

The council also took the following action:

— Approved first reading an ordinance increasing maximum fines and decriminalizing violations. City Attorney John Havens said the ordinance strikes from the Municipal Code all references to jail time as a possible punishment for those convicted of violating municipal laws and ordinances except for contempt following a hearing. Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, the maximum fine that may be imposed by municipal courts is $2,650 up from the current $1,000 maximum.

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